


The Hanging Tree

by AndroidAva



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Creepypasta, Death Fic, Fake AH Crew, Freewood - Freeform, Horror AU, Inspired by Music, M/M, Maybe - Freeform, No Dialogue, Psychoteeth, Song fic, Suicide, ghost au, inspired by mockingjay, loosely ot6, suicide TW
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-18
Updated: 2016-08-18
Packaged: 2018-08-09 13:30:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7803769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndroidAva/pseuds/AndroidAva
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gavin hates it when Ryan sings to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Hanging Tree

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the song [The Hanging Tree](https://youtu.be/F3hTW9e20d8?list=PL05Keex6N7txrtdm7riWUw7sKB8Erp1GA) from Mockingjay (Hunger Games Series)
> 
> This can sort of be interpreted as AH OT6, but not necessarily. They're just really comfortable with each other. Whatever floats your boat, honestly.
> 
> Warning: This is really dark.

_Are you, are you  
Coming to the tree?_

Ryan Haywood was missing. 

It wasn't unlike the vagabond to go dark without much warning, but never for this long, and never without some form of communication eventually. He would have said something to them by now. The Crew searched tirelessly, putting all plans, heists, everything on the back burner. Finding Ryan became the only thing that mattered.

Geoff was devastated, but refused to let it show. Stoic as ever, he remained their proper leader, only dropping his mask in the lonely shadows of the night. When no one was looking.  
Jack was the force behind Geoff's brave face. He kept all of them going with his undying hope. Where he found his energy, no one truly knew.  
Michael put all his emotions into his rage. He was untouchable these days, anything and everything setting him off. The only time he was truly calm was when Geoff was able to get close enough to console him.  
Ray, aloof as ever, didn't talk much anymore. The youngest crew member hardly slept, spending the most time searching for Ryan during the dead hours of the morning.

Then there was Gavin. 

He hadn't heard Ryan's voice in months. The Brit held painfully tight to the memories of that unique and charming voice, his low laughs, the way it rose several octaves when he became excited about something impossibly geeky. It made his heart ache, longing to see their mad mercenary once more. Hear his voice...

...And then he did.

_They strung up a man  
They say who murdered three._

Gavin thought he was going crazy. Unable to sleep, lying helplessly tangled in the sheets of his bedding, he heard it. Clear as a bell, as if Ryan were lying right next to him. He sat straight up and looked around frantically, desperately searching for the light switch to his lamp at his bedside. The pitch black room fills with light.

Empty. 

Gavin looks down into his bed, heart hammering in his chest. The only thing in his bed was a sleeping Michael, disgruntled and swearing sleepily at him, demanding to know what the fuck he was doing and to turn off that damn light. He squeezes his own chest tightly, the strange music still ringing in his ears as he turned off the light and laid back down once again. He knew if he were to tell the red head what he had _thought_ he heard, he would only become angry or hurt, or possibly both and just call him names and go back to sleep. Ryan was... gone. It was still difficult to admit to himself.

The room was silent once more until the early morning light began to turn everything a pale dusty blue.

Ryan began to sing to him again, and this time he made sure to listen, staying completely still.

_Strange things did happen here_  
_No stranger would it be_  
_If we met at midnight_  
_In the hanging tree._

Gavin's heart began to beat wildly once more, confused by the eerie and haunting lyrics that were ringing out in his head, in Ryan's voice. Before he could begin to even try to decipher their meaning, a sudden and unnatural wave of exhaustion consumed him, drowning him into the unconscious world for the rest of the night.

_Are you, are you  
Coming to the tree?_

Michael Jones was missing.

It happened that first night Gavin heard him. None of the Crew members thought anything of it. He was just out looking for Ryan. He was distracting himself with mindless violence.

But Gavin felt so uneasy. He could tell something was wrong. When he voiced this to the others, they didn't want to hear it. There's just no way anything else bad could happen to them.

But they were so wrong.

Three Days later, the Fake AH Crew began the search for two of its members. 

Geoff's mask started to show its cracks.  
Jack's endless supply of hope suddenly didn't seem so unlimited.  
Ray stopped talking all together.  
Gavin felt cold with fear.

_Where dead man called out  
For his love to flee._

Gavin had crawled into bed with Ray that night weeks later, soothing him and trying to get him to sleep. The younger lad was a wreck and needed to sleep. Gavin had convinced him to stay home that night, to get some much needed rest. 

The brit had just been about to drift off to the peaceful sounds of Ray's even breathing when he heard _him_ again.

_Strange things did happen here_  
_No stranger would it be_  
_If we met at midnight_  
_In the hanging tree._

Ryan's voice sang the same ghostly lyrics to him, echoing through the room, but this time they sounded different.

Michael's voice was accompanying him.

Gavin sat up, crying out into the emptiness, begging the invisible voice to just tell him what they wanted. Where had they disappeared to? To tell him how to find them and end this! His voice was hoarse, a whisper, unable to get any louder. The same force of exhaustion flooded him, pulling him back down into the bedding to sleep. Gavin's last waking thought was almost a prayer that Ray would be there when he woke in the morning.

_Are you, are you  
Coming to the tree?_

Ray Narvaez Jr. was missing.

Gavin woke, finding his bed empty, and immediately panicking this time. He _begged_ Geoff and Jack to listen to him, that something was wrong. The remaining two Gents once again refused to listen, brushing him off. Ray was the one who was eager to search every day for hours on end for their missing boys, but Gavin could see the uncertain and terrified glances Jack and Geoff shared before simply walking away from Gavin. They told him to get some rest and that he looked like shit. A common endearing phrase for them. When Gavin tried to insist, Geoff snapped, telling him that he was just paranoid.

It was only a day before they changed their mind.

Geoff started drinking during the day.  
Jack didn't try to comfort them anymore.

Half their family was missing. No one ate or slept anymore, and when they did, they barely talked to one another. All their energy and time was put into the search. Was this an attack on their crew from a rival party? A sick joke? Their unanswered questions and failing searches were driving the last of the Fake AH Crew to madness.

_Where I told you to run,  
So we'd both be free._

Ryan's voice sounded so beautiful with Ray and Michael's intertwining with it.

The lyrics began to follow Gavin even during his waking hours. The brit felt like he really was mad, which made him want to laugh, was this how Ryan felt all the time? Mad as a hatter, hearing voices, telling him to do the awful things he does? 

Just two days after Ray's disappearance, he finally told Jack and Geoff about Ryan's ominous lullaby. How every night he heard him sing, Michael and Ray had disappeared the next day. The Gents stared at him as if he were crazy, and told him just that. They all had a round of drinks that night, and Gavin didn't resist. Maybe they were right, maybe he was crazy, or at the very least letting his devastation of losing his loved ones get to him. 

Geoff insisted that he sleep in between him and Jack that night. Gavin was hesitant, afraid that he would lose them both if Ryan decided to come to him that night. Their boss simply dragged him down into the bedding, reminding him that they were still a crew, and that an order was an order. Jacks heavy breathing and weight against his side grounded Gavin enough for him to fall asleep, feeling safe.

_Strange things did happen here_  
_No stranger would it be_  
_If we met at midnight_  
_In the hanging tree._

Ryan's voice rang out, commanding and loud, as if trying to lure Gavin away. He cried, fighting the ache in his chest, apologizing into the darkness to the ghostly voices. Was this Ryan's way of punishing them? That they weren't trying hard enough to find them? It wasn't fair. They had searched high and low, every corner of the city for him, as well as the others. It was as if they all vanished without a trace.

He reached out and took both Geoff and Jack's hands, holding tight to them, hoping to keep them from following the cries of their missing crew as he was forced to sleep once more.

_Are you, are you  
Coming to the tree?_

Jack Pattillo was missing.

This time Geoff needed no convincing. He finally listened to Gavin as he sobbed, telling him about the awful song Ryan kept singing to him. How the others had joined him. How it was only a matter of time before Jack would be singing with them. Neither one of them understood what it meant. They searched all day and night, looking through every forest, at every tree. They even tried to look up lores in Achievement City about a hanging tree. Nothing.

Geoff's mask shattered and laid in pieces at his feet. He clung to Gavin, afraid to lose his only boy.  
But Gavin didn't share his sentiment.

Gavin knew Geoff would be next. 

Jack's voice joined Michael and Ray's just hours after he had gone missing. Ryan's voice was louder than ever, begging Gavin to listen, trying to pull him away. The Brit resisted and stayed firmly in Geoff's arms as they endlessly scoured whatever grounds they could reach.

_Wear a necklace of rope,  
Side by side with me._

Neither one of them slept. They stayed entwined in each others arms, Gavin shaking horrendously. Ryan seemed to be desperate for him, the voices beginning to sound distorted with how frantic and unyielding they became whenever he heard them. Their voices filled him with ice instead of comfort like they used to. He missed them terribly. The warmth of their skin, their happy laughter, even their angry words when Gavin was being... Gavin. He wanted to run around the city without a care in the world, causing mayhem, and reminding the world they were a force to be reckoned. 

It felt like those days were a lifetime ago. Gavin could feel the heaviness in his heart, his mind shattering. Nothing seemed to matter anymore.

Geoff passed out after downing an entire bottle of some nameless alcohol. Gavin didn't bother to read the label. He laid against the headboard of Geoff's bed, the man's head in his lap, his king sized bed feeling far too big and empty.

_Strange things did happen here_  
_No stranger would it be_  
_If we met at midnight_  
_In the hanging tree._

Gavin fought as hard as he could against whatever forces kept trying to pull him into sleep this time. He was angry. Bitter that Ryan would do this to them. He shouted with rage that would have rivaled Michael's, telling Ryan to stop. He wrapped his arms around Geoff, yelling into the void that he couldn't take him. 

The Brit fought long enough to witness Geoff sit up. There was a gloss to his eyes, as if he were not entirely there. He was muttering that he had to find them. Ryan was showing him the way... 

Gavin wanted to scream for Geoff to not listen, but he was finally dragged under, against his will into the twilight of his subconscious.

_Are you, are you  
Coming to the tree?_

Geoff Ramsey was missing.

Gavin screamed as he ran through their empty penthouse, a path of destruction in his wake, his maddening grief exhausting his sanity. 

The singing never stopped now. Geoff's voice was present as soon as Gavin woke. 

He couldn't stay inside a moment longer.

He ran.

And ran.

And **ran**.

_Where I told you to run,  
So we'd both be free._

Ryan's voice seemed to carry him far away from their beloved city.

His boys were singing, begging for him to meet them, so that they could be together again.

Gavin sobbed, his anguish all consuming, not caring anymore.

He just wanted to see his boys again.

_Strange things did happen here_  
_No stranger would it be_  
_If we met at midnight_  
_In the hanging tree._

It was midnight when he found them.  
Hanging in an old oak tree, deep in some nameless forest far far away.  
Their singing had silenced. There was no sound save for the wind that gently swayed their bodies into one another, shaking the trees.

Gavin didn't even have the strength to scream or cry anymore. He collapsed to his knees before his boys, staring up at them, so alone. So afraid.

He didn't care why anymore.  
He had no desire to find out what happened.  
There was no point.  
They were all gone and he was alone.

Ryan's voice began to sing again, soft and comforting once more, quiet and gentle as the breeze.

Gavin saw them all smile down at him, bodies full of life, warm and welcoming.

And he smiled back.

_Are you, are you  
Coming to the tree?_

Gavin Free was missing.

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't sleep so of course this song popped into my head at like 4 in the morning and I just couldn't stop thinking about all of my boys dying in the Fakers world. 
> 
> I really wish I was good at drawing, because I really wanted this to be one of those progressive storyboard comics with super creepy fonts for the lyrics and Ryan, shadowed except for his smile, hanging in a tree.
> 
> I considered making this an immortal au, buttttttt I think this is far more powerful and distressing.
> 
> I'm really really sorry guys.


End file.
